The present invention relates to a boom positioning device for high-position working for positioning the tip end of a boom for high-position working at a predetermined work location with respect to a work object.
In works such as power distribution works, engineering works, and construction works using high-position work platform vehicles, recently, in order to secure safety of workers and improve working efficiency, a robot is provided at the tip end of the boom of the high-position work platform vehicle, and from a place distant from an actual work site, a worker remotely operates the robot or monitors the automatic operation of the robot.
Particularly, in a high-position work platform vehicle for power distribution, for the purpose of a reduction in the worker""s boom operation and improvement in robot working efficiency, a device which has a distance measuring means disposed on the boom to measure the distance to a work object, and automatically positions the boom tip end at a predetermined work location is proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications No. H07-31023 and No. H08-322120.
However, distance measurements in a case of an outdoor work, since measurements are made in disturbance of sunlight and backgrounds other than a work object within an accommodation space in which human safety is taken into account, long distance measuring accuracy is generally lowered. Furthermore, since mechanical errors due to deflection of the boom are additionally taken into account, one-time-only positioning at the work location cannot ensure the desired positional accuracy, and therefore, robot system working efficiency after positioning is significantly lowered.
An object of the invention is, therefore, to secure a desired positional accuracy even in positioning the tip end of a boom at a work location from a distant place.
In order to achieve the abovementioned object, the invention provides a boom positioning device for high-position working for positioning the tip end of a boom for high-position working at a predetermined work location with respect to a work object, comprising means for detecting the positions of the respective axes of the boom, means for computing the position and attitude of the boom tip-end from the positions of the respective axes of the boom detected by the boom respective-axis position detecting means, imaging means having a multi-axis driving unit and provided with means for measuring a distance from the boom tip-end position to a work object, attached to the boom, and view angle adjusting means, means for displaying images picked up by the imaging means, collimation drawing means for displaying a collimation for specifying a measuring object on the display means in a condition of overlapping with the measuring object, camera manual operating means for manually operating the imaging means so that the measuring object is overlapped with the collimation, measuring error judging means for judging whether or not the boom tip-end position is within a range with measuring accuracy guaranteed, first boom working amount calculating means for calculating a boom working amount to an approachable region in which the measuring accuracy of the distance measuring means is guaranteed based on an output of the distance measuring means and an output of the measuring error judging means, boom control means for operating the boom based on an output of the first boom working amount calculating means, viewpoint fixing working amount calculating means for calculating a working amount of the imaging means in order to fix the viewpoint of the imaging means during boom working, and second boom working amount calculating means for calculating a boom working amount to a predetermined work position with respect to the work object based on the distance from the boom tip-end position to the work object within the approachable region detected by the distance measuring means, the predetermined work position, and the boom tip-end position.